Sgt Braille - Checking out Jersey

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With the year filling up fast with detachments all over the globe, I had a chance to nip back to home-base in Jersey to catch up with old friends and get some R&R. Little did I know how busy things would get during my brief stay.

First stop was the headquarters of the Royal Jersey Militia, on Mount Bingham, where I collected my Temperate DPM uniform as well as my OD green overalls.

Whilst I had been away in Northern Ireland, my fellow militiamen had been hard at work painting our Landrovers a rather racy green and topping up the disruptive pattern of rust on our heavy lifting equipment.

But all work and no play makes Braille a dull Bear, so I volunteered to take a quick inspection tour of Jersey’s far eastern castle – Mont Orgueil.

On arrival at the castle my first job was to check out the coastal defences and check the exterior walls of the castle for damage over the winter. Because of the risk from those pesky French it’s important to keep an eye on the coastline, as way back in our history they did gatecrash the castle for a period before we kicked them out again.

Next stop was the toilets overlooking the bay, as the facilities further up the castle could be described as a little basic. After entering the castle the first task was to catch up on my staff work and I settled down to some admin in the office. Computers haven’t quite reached us here in Jersey yet but my chosen method of paperwork rarely crashes. I paused briefly to check out Jersey’s Dragoon Guards and feed the horses, before heading to see the castle’s workforce “dying” to get on with their job.

With so many overseas postings in my future it was important to brush up on my POW and Anti-interrogation training, so I stopped by a group of raw recruits going through their training. They seemed a little wooden about the whole thing but I joined in to show them how a seasoned soldier coped. After an exhausting period in chains I headed to find the bar and got slightly more than I was expecting. I was immediately thrown into a PT session and after scrambling up the net was met by an RAMC demonstration of field wound management. I am hoping this has now been updated!

So still disturbingly sober, I headed up to the battlements to check on Jersey’s high-tech artillery pieces. The new “Spudgun” 3000 series from was a welcome addition to the gate defences and with a broader-bore barrel was able to take a better and more penetrating size of Jersey Royal potato. Confident that we could repel any strength of French attack with a broad range of root vegetables it was up to see the wall guards and our vast array of small arms.

Key to the castle’s defences is our ability to throw custard pies over great distances with our modern trebuchet, which is capable of overcoming any amount of incoming French tart. At the top of the castle I decided to get a better view of the French from the observation points that the Germans added to the castle during the Second World War, and on hearing the dinner bell headed down to meet the V.I.P.s for lunch.

Moving On ...

Having finished with the castle it was time to head inland to the German Underground Hospital. This network of tunnels was built by the Nazi German occupiers to operate as – you’ve guessed it – a hospital.

Hence the name – German Underground Hospital.

As a Royal Engineer one of my duties back home is to check that the unfinished tunnels are still stable before taking a look round the other exhibits.

Always worth a visit is the restored surgical operating theatre; the recovered props of shot-down American bombers; and the high-tech communications equipment that we’re still expected to use today.

There's much more about it here > Jersey War Tunnels It's an unmissable visit if you ever get over here.

Once I escaped into the light, it was time to head back to H.Q. ready for my next assignment … I think that's in UK. The B_M_G will stick me in a box, and I'll find out eventually!